Monday, November 19, 2018

At the November 13 workshop members shared "places they've been," including cemeteries, libraries, local museums, and the Family History Library. More new members joined us, and there was time for research and questions. A Canada research group began working together.

This week Jan Klein, the registrar of the local DAR chapter, will be speaking about the membership process and the DAR website.

The 2019 Pinal County Genealogy Workshop will be held on Saturday, January 26. All information and registration forms should be posted on the web by December 1. More later on this event.

First published in 1990 and online since 1998, the directory contains an excellent collection of materials to further your research. The site also includes a link to the 2017 edition of A Primer in Irish Genealogy (PDF file), edited by Sean J. Murphy. It provides an extensive introduction to Irish genealogy research with guidance to reference and general sources of all types. Another link from the site goes to a database of The Church of Ireland Gazette, 1856-1923.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Fourteen people attended our first workshop of the season, a good group for early in November. We reviewed some basics for beginning your genealogy research, such as steps to follow and suggested forms for writing names, dates and places. We also took a brief look at the FamilyTree section of FamilySearch, as their format has changed slightly since last spring.

We took an informal survey of the group to find out which method of recording information is being used. Several members are using more than one option. Here are results:

Friday, November 9, 2018

Eastmans Online Genealogy Newsletter included the following article today.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Findmypast makes entire collection of more than 9 Billion records and all historical newspapers free for three days.

All UK, Irish, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian and US records as well as all British, Irish and World Newspapers are free from the 9th to the 12th November 2018.

Leading British & Irish family history website, Findmypast, will be making their entire collection of world military records free for three days in honour of the 100-year anniversary of the end of the First World War. https://www.findmypast.com/military-family/

A century on from the end of the war, family historians can explore all of Findmypast’s records and newspapers free of charge.

Over 9 billion records covering the UK, Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as Findmypast’s vast archive of British, Irish and World Newspapers, will be completely free to search and explore.

Does this seem a bit ambiguous? It is difficult to tell whether they are referring to only military records or the entire collection. If you have any free time, it's a worthwhile way to spend it!

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter this morning had some very good news for Canadian researchers. The clip below reports on the release of the 1926 Census of the Canadian Prairie Provinces.

"According to the Library and Archives Canada web site the 1926 Census of the Canadian Prairie Provinces, which contains over 45,000 pages, is being transferred to Library and Archives Canada. Over the summer, Statistics Canada concluded an agreement with FamilySearch to index the thousands of census entries so Canadians can find the material on the Library and Archives Canada website easily.

FamilySearch has completed the indexing and is now proceeding with quality control. On December 1, FamilySearch will send the proposed index to Library and Archives Canada to will start building a new database. The Census database will consist of a free searchable index as well as the digitized images from the 1926 Census of Prairie Provinces.

Library and Archives Canada expects to have an online database by March 2019."

Monday, October 29, 2018

Here is information I received on July 1, 2018 from the Mesa facility. It looks as if they won't be open for at least two years.

The Mesa Arizona FamilySearch Library is closing!

The library is closed the entire month of July. It reopens August 6thThe library will have regular hours between 6 August and until 5:00 pm September 14th.The library will be closed permanently at 5:00 pm September 14 and not reopen until the new "Discovery Center" is constructed approximately 2 years from now.We will not have any more large conferences.Our calendar will not be maintained after 14 September.Please refer to our wiki page at mesafsl.org for updates and other information.